Monday, October 22, 2012

[Q&A] Shane Ivey (Arc Dream)

[18:59] <~Dan> When you're ready, please introduce yourself and your company/products. :)
[19:00] <+Shane_Ivey> Sure. My name is Shane Ivey and if you elect me president of the United States, I promise a Delta Green role-playing game before my first term is done.[19:01] <+helios1014> How long will that term be ? :)
[19:02] <+Shane_Ivey> As part of Arc Dream Publishing I also oversee the RPG lines Godlike, Wild Talents, Monsters and Other Childish Things, and now Better Angels. And some others. We also have published a few fiction works and an ebook version of the Cthulhu Mythos Encyclopedia.
[19:02] <~Dan> (Howdy, helios1014! Please hold questions until we get our "(done)". :) )
[19:02] <+Shane_Ivey> Here in the U.S., terms are four years. But we'll have DG well before then.
[19:03] <+Shane_Ivey> (done)
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[19:03] <~Dan> Thanks, Shane!@
[19:03] <~Dan> -@
[19:03] <~Dan> Anyone have any questions to get us started?
[19:04] <&Le_Squide> Thanks so much for the Grim War examples on the ORE mailing list! It's one of my favorite ORE settings; any chance we'll ever see more for it?
[19:06] <+Shane_Ivey> I think so. I love it, too, and I've though about talking to Greg about doing a revised version at some point that's a little easier to wrap your head around. It's kind of hard to access unless you really study it. I love the flavor of the setting that Greg Stolze and Ken Hite created, the rough magic and superpowered spies.
[19:07] <+Shane_Ivey> I did about half of a Grim War scenario a while back but didn't finish it quick enough. It's about PCs who are mutants and sorcerers employed by a private security contractor in Afghanistan. The idea was to use the company rules from Reign very prominently, with the player characters and their coworkers as one company (literally) and other factions for others
[19:08] <+Shane_Ivey> ... local tribes, U.S. Army units, sorcerous terror cells, that kind of thing.
[19:08] <+Shane_Ivey> I need to revise it to suit current events or make it more alternate worldy. Sometime soon. (done)
[19:09] <~Dan> ORE seems to be your "house system" now. Any chance of ORE Delta Green at some point?
[19:11] <+Shane_Ivey> We may package stat conversions to go along with the RPG, to play it with Nemesis, the Cthulhu Mythos ORE game.
[19:11] <&Le_Squide> Awesome!
[19:12] <+helios1014> Do you have any advice on how to write a scenario (specificly in DG)?
[19:12] <+Shane_Ivey> We considered doing multiple versions of the core game, but I didn't like the risk of confusing the market.
[19:13] <+Shane_Ivey> How to write a DG scenario? Yeah, that's tricky. It's getting some concrete treatment in the RPG core books.
[19:13] <+helios1014> Shiney
[19:13] <~Dan> No, Shaney. :)
[19:13] <+Shane_Ivey> You're writing a Call of Cthulhu scenario fundamentally, so start with all the advice they give you there. But for DG you want to account for legal authority and jurisdiction -- at least well enough to fake it.
[19:14] <+Shane_Ivey> And you want to make sure that all those resources come with so many strings that engaging with them makes life more risky and difficult.
[19:14] <+Shane_Ivey> DG agents are there to save lives in the big picture, and a big part of that is keeping people from discovering the supernatural horrors that they've witnessed.
[19:15] <+Shane_Ivey> Call in the SWAT team or the SEALs or an FBI surveillance van at the wrong time and you have only spread the horrors further.
[19:16] <+Shane_Ivey> Make the modern resources that DG agents often have a source of suspense and dread.
[19:17] <+Silverlion> Hrms. Cool.
[19:17] <+Shane_Ivey> And remember, DG agents always have guns and players LOVE to shoot things. So when you design a scenario, try to build it so shooting things doesn't solve the problem. At least not right away. And if it does solve the problem, make sure it comes with so many strings that it too is a source of dread.
[19:17] <+Silverlion> Worms in the eyes moments like the Laundry?
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[19:18] <+helios1014> I have an idea involving a lot of shotguns and a semi-formless spawn.
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[19:18] <~Dan> (Welcome to #rpgnet, Rowdy!)
[19:18] <+Rowdy> Hi all
[19:18] <~Dan> (Q&A with Shane Ivey in progress. Ask at will!)
[19:19] <+Shane_Ivey> Sure. As punctuation. DG thrives on being more mundane in its awfulness than the Laundry sometimes is. If a normal who's backing you up is exposed to horrors and can't cope, or becomes one, or threatens to tell the world -- that's a great source of fear and grim decisions.
[19:19] <+Shane_Ivey> (done)
[19:19] <~Dan> Is Arc Dream your full-time gig, and if so, what's a typical day like for you?
[19:21] <+Shane_Ivey> It wavers between part time and way, way more than full time, depending on the time of year. Running up to GenCon or with a big release, it eats up all my waking hours. Right now it's somewhere between part-time and full-time.
[19:22] <+Shane_Ivey> Daily: I spend a couple of hours, sometimes more, on blog posts and social media and other things to try to engage with our audience.
[19:22] <+Rowdy> What's the status of Torch for Godlike?
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[19:22] <+Shane_Ivey> Part of that in the near future will be trying to more proactively set up a demo volunteer program. We've tentatively tried to do that for years and it's time to really do it in some way.
[19:23] <+Shane_Ivey> The other half of my time is usually production. Writing, editing, layout, corresponding with freelancers, managing product development.
[19:24] <+Shane_Ivey> That's the theory -- half on marketing and the business side, half on production.
[19:24] <+Shane_Ivey> (done)
[19:24] <+Shane_Ivey> As for Torch:
[19:26] <+Shane_Ivey> Allan Goodall has the manuscript. It's gone through a lot of hands over the last ten years. But after seeing what he did with Black Devils Brigade, we knew he was the guy. He came to Birmingham for a local convention a couple of years ago and I gave him a couple of boxes full of research books I'd collected for Torch over the years.
[19:26] <~Dan> Is Torch a D-Day supplement?
[19:27] <+Shane_Ivey> He's finishing up an unrelated scenario right now -- Ortona, which he started for the Godlike paperback Kickstarter -- and when that's done he'll be hip-deep in Torch.
[19:27] <+Shane_Ivey> Operation Torch is a full-length campaign about the Allied invasion of North Africa in late 1942.
[19:27] <~Dan> Oh... duh. *smacks self*
[19:27] <+Shane_Ivey> Historically it was kind of a cakewalk in comparison to Normandy. In our version, the presence of Ubermenschen makes it more tricky.
[19:28] <~Dan> (What was D-Day, again? Overlord?)
[19:28] <+Rowdy> Great!
[19:28] <+Shane_Ivey> Right. D-Day was Operation Overlord, 1944.
[19:29] <+Rowdy> Any projections as to releases in 2013?
[19:29] <+helios1014> Is the New DG RPG going to have its own system or use one of the open souce systems available?
[19:29] <+Shane_Ivey> Torch has some very cool elements that we haven't detailed in Godlike. Spy vs. spy vs. spy action in Casablanca. Dealing with Berber tribesmen. Secret submarine missions and shipboard sabotage. And that's just the first adventure.
[19:29] <~Dan> You say "in your version"... I seem to recall that Godlike's WW2 was supposed to go pretty much like the RL version. Is that still the case, and if not, to what degree?
[19:29] <~Dan> (And question pause while Shane catches up, please.)
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[19:30] <+Rowdy> sorry
[19:30] <+Shane_Ivey> Godlike's WW2 is deliberately very close to our own, especially in the broad strokes. But there are a lot of differences when you drill down to the details.
[19:31] <+Shane_Ivey> The challenge for the players in Operation Torch is to make sure that their Operation Torch comes through without disaster despite Ubermenschen.
[19:31] <~Dan> (No problem, Rowdy! I just call for a question pause after a few questions in a row to keep the guest from being swamped. You're doing fine. :) )
[19:32] <+Shane_Ivey> The new Delta Green RPG will be a self-contained system based largely on open-source rules from BRP. (Chaosium's Basic Role Playing engine.)
[19:33] <+Shane_Ivey> It has a lot of tweaks to fit our particular vision of how DG and its version of the Cthulhu Mythos works, but it'll be directly compatible with Call of Cthulhu and other BRP games.
[19:34] <+Shane_Ivey> (done)
[19:34] <+Shane_Ivey> Rowdy asked about 2013 releases.
[19:35] <+Shane_Ivey> Better Angels, unless that comes out in December.
[19:35] <+Shane_Ivey> The Sense of the Sleight of Hand Man, a Dreamlands campaign for Call of Cthulhu, by Dennis Detwiller.
[19:36] <+Shane_Ivey> Tales of Failed Anatomies, a new Delta Green fiction collection.
[19:36] <+Shane_Ivey> Operation Torch, for Godlike.
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[19:36] <+Shane_Ivey> Day of Days, an amazing D-Day campaign for Godlike.
[19:37] <+Shane_Ivey> More issues of The Unspeakable Oath.
[19:37] <+Shane_Ivey> There's more in the works but realistically I expect that's enough to shoot for in 2013.
[19:37] <+Shane_Ivey> (done)
[19:37] <+helios1014> PDF or paper only?
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[19:38] <+helios1014> for all of the above
[19:38] <+Shane_Ivey> All will be PDF and paper. The fiction collection will have hardback and ebook versions too.
[19:38] <+Shane_Ivey> (done)
[19:38] <~Dan> Can you say a bit more about the Dreamlands campaign?
[19:40] <+Shane_Ivey> It was funded thanks to a Kickstarter program several months ago. Dennis is mostly done with it and has played through it several times.
[19:41] <+Shane_Ivey> It starts off featuring player characters who are heroin addicts in 1925 New York City. They try something new -- and run afoul of a slaver from the Dreamlands, who brings their souls over for enslavement by the Moon Beasts. Things get weirder, lovelier and more grotesque from there.
[19:41] <+Shane_Ivey> (done)
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[19:42] <~Dan> Ah... So that explains how you can have a whole campaign within the Dreamlands.
[19:42] <~Dan> re: the drug element.
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[19:43] <+Rowdy> wow
[19:43] <+Shane_Ivey> Yeah.
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[19:43] <+helios1014> or gouls kidnapp you from the waking world
[19:43] <~Dan> Please tell me it's not Lumley-ized...?
[19:43] <+Rowdy> looking forward to receiving it :-)
[19:43] <~Dan> (Welcome to #rpgnet, CargoCulture! Q&A in progress. :) )
[19:44] <+Shane_Ivey> It's not Lumleyized. It's scary and weird and pretty stark.
[19:44] <~Dan> Oh thank God.
[19:44] <~Dan> (I still can't believe Chaosium turned the Dreamlands into Lumleyland.)
[19:45] <+xyphoid_> (this is a very surreal exchange when the only Lumley I can think of is Joanna)
[19:45] <+Shane_Ivey> Dennis' first motivation for Sense was that he heard so many people say the Dreamlands didn't seem scary as a game setting. He wanted to fix that.
[19:46] <~Dan> Xyphoid: I'm referring to Brian Lumley, who introduced topless monster babes and Cthulhu's sparkley good brother to the Mythos.
[19:46] <~Dan> And yes, the Dreamlands rock.
[19:47] <~Dan> Is that the first old-school 1920s CoC product you've put out in a while?
[19:47] <~Dan> Or will have put out, rather.
[19:47] <+Shane_Ivey> For Arc Dream proper I think it's going to be our first 1920s book. Not counting articles in The Unspeakable Oath.
[19:47] <+helios1014> are there talking cats?
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[19:48] <+Shane_Ivey> I don't remember whether there are talking cats. :)
[19:48] <~Dan> Really? I must be thinking of something put out by Pagan, maybe... The Nocturnes campaign, I think it was?
[19:48] <~Dan> Nocturnum, rather
[19:49] <~Dan> (Howdy, Wondy!)
[19:50] <+Rowdy> As Kickstarter has done pretty well, will you be using that more in the future for "ify" products?
[19:50] <+Shane_Ivey> Pagan released Bumps in the Night and Mysteries of Mesoamerica recently.
[19:50] <+Shane_Ivey> Yeah. We'll be using Kickstarter for just about everything.
[19:52] <+Shane_Ivey> It's got downsides, but knowing that we will hit some minimum funding level without worrying about X number of sales after committing to freelance bills is a huge win.
[19:53] <+Shane_Ivey> That was badly phrased. You never know that you WILL hit whatever level. But being able to say "If we get X, it's worthwhile to commit our resources" is a big deal.
[19:53] <+Shane_Ivey> (done)
[19:53] <+helios1014> what are the downsides?
[19:54] <+Shane_Ivey> Kickstarter itself is undergoing so much expansion right now that there's a risk we'll lose some backers who get burned by undelivered projects.
[19:55] <+Shane_Ivey> But from our perspective, that's outweighed by gaining new supporters who might not have heard of us otherwise. As long as it's expanding KS is a more and more valuable venue for exposure.
[19:56] <+Shane_Ivey> The more dangerous downside is the risk of doing the math wrong when calculating your goals. For projects where you'll deliver a physical project, planning for the costs of printing and especially the variable costs of shipping around the world can get really tricky.
[19:57] <+Shane_Ivey> I think KS has started implementing some tools to make that specific part easier since the last time I put a project up. That'll be good if they did. We learned the hard way that those shipping calculations can really get away from you in a big way if you're not careful.
[19:57] <+Shane_Ivey> (done)
[19:58] <~Dan> You mention the new DG being a self-contained game with tweaks to BRP... Can you say a bit more on that front?
[19:59] <+Shane_Ivey> Sure. The basics are pretty much the same as CoC. A bunch of stats ranging from 3 to 18. Skills ranging from 0 to 100. Hit points and Sanity points.
[20:01] <+Shane_Ivey> The names of skills and the way they work in play has gotten a lot of attention, based on experiences that we've had in play. In CoC it's easy to default to "Make a skill roll" any time the Keeper hasn't decided ahead of time what ought to happen. For players with inexperienced Keepers that can really be frustrating, because CoC skills tend to be pretty low.
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[20:02] <+Shane_Ivey> So while it's still percentile based and it's still uncommon to have more than one or two skills that are really good, the guidelines and rules for making a roll at all address the fact that by asking for a roll you're making failure likely.
[20:04] <+Shane_Ivey> Sanity is pretty much the same as it's always been in CoC. The biggest tweak is that characters can opt to develop strong relationships with NPCs or other things that are crucial to their world-view -- devotion to a job or a cause, whatever really matters to the character -- as a way to regain lost SAN.
[20:04] <+Geek2theRight> Just got home. Someone gimme the 3 second recap of what we're talking about plz.
[20:05] <~Dan> (Q&A with Shane Ivey of Arc Dream. :) )
[20:05] <+Shane_Ivey> Of course, going on Delta Green ops and coming home with deteriorating SAN and horrible wounds does nothing good for real-world relationships. It's another variant on the Onion Skin of Doom theme of CoC.
[20:05] <~Dan> (At the moment, discussing Delta Green's new edition.)
[20:05] <+WonderRat> (Delta Green? :) )
[20:06] <+Shane_Ivey> Other stuff: Um, there's a Willpower rating. It's the same as Magic Points but can come into play in a lot of non-magic ways. Long interrogations, trying to work for days on end, that kind of thing.
[20:07] <~Dan> (Wondy: Modern-day Call of Cthulhu with spies and conspiracies.)
[20:07] <+WonderRat> (Yeah I know what it is. Just happy to hear bout a new edition)
[20:07] <+Shane_Ivey> I wrote some detailed rules for working past exhaustion and relying too heavily on uppers to keep going and on downers and booze to compensate. I'm not sure how much those will get trimmed down. I was playing a lot of Aces & Eights at the time. :)
[20:07] <~Dan> Heh. :)
[20:09] <+Shane_Ivey> Magic and the Mythos get a treatment from scratch. We haven't gone into that in depth yet, but I expect it will be built to be very HPL-purist as the default with options and guidelines for incorporating other stuff to pulp it up.
[20:09] <+Shane_Ivey> What else do you want to know?
[20:10] <~Dan> Let's see... Are there any cinematic rules options, or is it pretty much standard CoC in that respect?
[20:10] <+helios1014> Is Alphose still in charge or has he gone on that green box in the sky?
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[20:11] <+Shane_Ivey> Pretty standard CoC. PCs are slightly more resilient when it comes to hit points. I've heard CoC7 is doing something similar.
[20:12] <+Teylen> hi ya
[20:12] <~Dan> (Howdy, Teylen! Q&A with Shane Ivey in progress!)
[20:13] <+Shane_Ivey> Alphonse: Well, it's tricky. There's Delta Green and there's Delta Green. There's conspiracies within conspiracies. If you're in the inside one, you get encrypted self-erasing emails and scrambled phone calls from a guy code-named Alphonse. But he won't ever let you see him in real life.
[20:13] <+Teylen> (Just noticed, sorry for the harsh jumping in ^^; )
[20:13] <~Dan> (No worries!)
[20:13] <+Shane_Ivey> What else?
[20:14] <~Dan> Any rules for psychic powers?
[20:15] <+Shane_Ivey> Yes. They're a great way to go insane.
[20:16] <~Dan> Heh. Example(s)?
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[20:17] <~Dan> (Welcome, ArsM!)
[20:18] <+Shane_Ivey> Psychic powers in DG are sort of a step in the direction of using magic. Either one opens up your brain to doing things that healthy brains don't physically do. Psychic powers in DG are very hard to control and hard to predict and when they do work they tend to drain SAN rapidly. But if you want to play a survivor of Project STARGATE, you can. (done)
[20:18] <~Dan> Hmm... So is it just another manifestation of magic? Or is that splitting hairs?
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[20:20] <&Le_Squide> Have you given any thoughts about how you would translate them to the NEMESIS version of ORE, or one of the other versions?
[20:21] <+Shane_Ivey> The way I see it, when humans use spells in DG they're using the same muscles as psychic powers, but with more direction thanks to the influence of alien intelligences whose brains handle that kind of thing better than ours.
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[20:22] <+Shane_Ivey> We'll probably put out a set of stat translations for Nemesis and for other games -- Trail of Cthulhu, Realm of Cthulhu, maybe tremulus, etc. -- as a companion to the DG core books.
[20:22] <~Dan> Ah... So psychic powers are more internal and magic is more external?
[20:22] <~Dan> (Welcome, Guest69514! You can set your nick with the /nick command.)
[20:23] <+Shane_Ivey> Magic lets you use your puny human psychic muscles to do more impressive things.
[20:23] <~Dan> Gotcha.
[20:23] <+Shane_Ivey> As I see it in DG, anyway. Of course smarter guys than me are also involved, so we'll see how it looks when Greg and Dennis and Ken Hite have their say.
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[20:23] <~Dan> Do you address alien technology to any extent?
[20:23] <+Shane_Ivey> (done)
[20:26] <+Shane_Ivey> Sure. Large parts of the Delta Green setting are about people thinking they can turn alien technology to their own purposes and profit. It does not go well. It keeps Delta Green busy. It also makes them vulnerable to meddling and espionage. (done)
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[20:26] <&Le_Squide> Who wins in a fist fight; Stolze or Hite?
[20:27] <+Shane_Ivey> Stolze. No question. He looks weedy but he's a no-lie judo badass. (done)
[20:27] <~Dan> (Welcome, AWOLJoe!)
[20:29] <~Dan> DG aside, is ORE pretty much your go-to system now? And regardless, do you see any genres to which it is more or less suited?
[20:29] <+Shane_Ivey> What else you got? :)
[20:29] <+helios1014> Is the plan still for there to be a government sanctioned version of DG?
[20:30] <+Shane_Ivey> We use ORE for a lot of things, yeah. And that by itself makes us more likely to use it for new things because we're already thinking in those terms. So it's not like it's our exclusive thing but we sure do like it.
[20:30] <+brighthand> Apologies if anything like this has already been covered, but do you have any new settings/supplements in the works for Wild Talents? (Outside of Better Angels, which I understand uses an ORE variant.)
[20:31] <~Dan> (Question pause after brighthand's, please.)
[20:31] <+Shane_Ivey> For me, ORE is well suited for genres where there's frenetic, unforgiving action. Physical action like in Godlike and Wild Talents, and emotional or interpersonal action like in A Dirty World. The way dice works is dynamic and interesting. Crazy stuff can happen. I love that.
[20:32] <+Shane_Ivey> Now, that's not always what you're after. I also love FATE, and it's better suited for games where you want the players to have more narrative agency.
[20:33] <+Shane_Ivey> Oh! Earlier I talked about 2013 releases. Strange FATE is likely also going to be there - a standalone version of that rules set.
[20:33] <+Shane_Ivey> Sorry for the diversion.
[20:33] <~Dan> You're publishing Strange FATE?
[20:34] <+Shane_Ivey> Yeah. Mike Olson developed that wrinkle on the FATE engine for us in the FATE edition of The Kerberos Club. He'll be working it up as its own thing not tied to that setting.
[20:35] <~Dan> Ah, so he did! I'd forgotten you were the guys behind KC.
[20:36] <+Shane_Ivey> Brighthand asked about new Wild Talents things. We don't have anything big immediately planned for Wild Talents. Allan Goodall has been tinkering with a medieval Japan setting for a while, but he has his hands full with Godlike for now. We'll be putting out a bunch of adventures for existing Wild Talents settings.
[20:37] <+Shane_Ivey> Crap, I forgot another thing that's likely for 2013: Drachenritter, a completely kickass new game by Benjamin Baugh, who did Kerberos Club and Monsters and Other Childish Things.
[20:37] <~Dan> Oooo. What's the skinny on that one?
[20:39] <+Shane_Ivey> James Knevitt is working with Ben on that now. It's very cool. It's about medieval-style knights riding dragons and competing to protect and advance their slices of neighboring kingdoms.
[20:39] <~Dan> System?
[20:39] <+Shane_Ivey> Like so many things that we've done that wound up awesome, Drachenritter started as a "What if...?" thread on RPG.net. It's awesome.
[20:40] <+Shane_Ivey> Drachenritter uses the One Roll Engine.
[20:40] <+CargoCulture> (James here.) It's very promising. Ben at his best.
[20:40] <+Shane_Ivey> Yeah, ask James there, he'll tell you.
[20:41] <~Dan> Oh, hello there, James!
[20:41] <~Dan> Aside from the dragon-riding knights, how "generic fantasy" is the setting?
[20:42] <+Shane_Ivey> It's not generic. It's fantasy but it's pretty specific. No elves and dwarves and orcs, IIRC.
[20:42] <+CargoCulture> Ben is working to make it its own particular flavor.
[20:42] <&Le_Squide> If someone outside the company wants to do an ORE game, do you guys have a licensing procedure or submission guidelines?
[20:42] <+Shane_Ivey> It focuses heavily on the dragons and what their existence implies for a medieval-era setting. And guys in armor with big swords.
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[20:43] <+Shane_Ivey> We take submission proposals. Send me an email. We don't always move swiftly on them, but if it's an idea that really throws sparks we'll run with it.
[20:44] <+Shane_Ivey> (done)
[20:45] <+Shane_Ivey> Anything else?
[20:46] <~Dan> Looks like we have about 15 minutes in the regular Q&A, although you're welcome to hang out as long as you like to field questions.
[20:46] <~Dan> Is there anything we haven't covered that you'd like to address?
[20:46] <~Dan> (Questions are still welcome, everyone.)
[20:46] <&Le_Squide> Is Project NEMESIS hosted on Arc Dream's website, BTW? I'm never sure where to tell people to get the .pdf since the NEMESIS website went dark
[20:46] <+Shane_Ivey> We've covered a lot of bases! I appreciate the chance to talk about it all.
[20:47] <+ArsMysteriorum> What's the rationale for the loss of SAN in the usage of psychic abilities?
[20:48] <~Dan> (Question pause after ArsM's question.)
[20:48] <+Shane_Ivey> Nemesis is available at RPGNow and DriveThruRPG: (Link: http://tinyurl.com/nemesisrpg)http://tinyurl.com/nemesisrpg
[20:48] <+Shane_Ivey> (done)
[20:48] <&Le_Squide> ...Doh! I never realized that
[20:49] <+Shane_Ivey> Spread the word! :) It's a fun horror system.
[20:49] <+Shane_Ivey> James, you're our ORE line editor, remind me to polish up my unofficial Nemesis rules for The Dark Tower and put those online.
[20:50] <+CargoCulture> I shall do so.
[20:50] <+Drakkar> oh man that is a great idea
[20:50] <+Shane_Ivey> There was a question on SAN loss for using psychic abilities.
[20:51] <+ArsMysteriorum> Yes!
[20:51] <+Shane_Ivey> The basic theory is that Sanity deteriorates when the world doesn't work the way the human brain is wired to want it to work.
[20:51] <+Shane_Ivey> Our monkey brains want gravity to pull things down and want eyes to see just what's in front of them.
[20:52] <+ArsMysteriorum> Hah! I see!
[20:52] <+ArsMysteriorum> Interesting. Thank you!
[20:52] <+Shane_Ivey> When you can point your finger at an apple and make it float up in the air, or you can close your eyes and literally see a missile base four thousand miles away, there's dissonance between what your brain has evolved to experience and what your brain is actually doing. In the game that's SAN loss. (done)
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[20:53] <+helios1014> Still curious about the offical status of DG in the upcoming RPG?
[20:53] <+ArsMysteriorum> Very Faustian.
[20:53] <+Shane_Ivey> Right, I just remembered that question Helios.
[20:53] <~Dan> Is Nemesis "just" CoC using ORE, or is there more of a twist involved?
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[20:55] <+Shane_Ivey> In the DG RPG, in the world of the early 2010s, Delta Green has evolved and changed a lot since the 1990s. In a nutshell, elements of Delta Green seized a chance to worm their way into the black programs of the Majestic group and turn a lot of Majestic policies upside down. (more)
[20:57] <+Shane_Ivey> Years later, there's an official but very black organization that draws specialists from across the U.S. government, and sometimes from its allies, to investigate and eliminate supernatural threats. It sounds very clinical and above-board. It's not. (more)
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[20:58] <+Shane_Ivey> It's surrounded by corruption and by the inevitable byproducts of people with loose ethics hungering for things that inevitably drive them and other people insane. (done)
[20:58] <+helios1014> And thus my players are screwed, excellent.
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[20:59] <+Shane_Ivey> People in that task force have a security clearance that was deactivated more than 40 years ago in the Cold War and reactivated a few years ago at the height of the War on Terror. Saying the name of the clearance to people who aren't cleared to hear it is itself a violation of security.
[20:59] <+Shane_Ivey> That clearance is Delta Green.
[21:00] <+Shane_Ivey> Meanwhile, there's a cadre of individuals within that framework and some outside it who secretly work with each other and consider themselves the REAL Delta Green -- the agency that Joe Camp ran and would never have turned back over to stooges in the military-industrial complex.
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[21:01] <+Shane_Ivey> So you can run it in a few different ways. You can run agents who have an official (but secret, and they can hardly ever say it out loud) clearance and who have access to a lot of resources. But every time you access those resources you're further exposing the horrors that you're trying to stop.
[21:02] <+Shane_Ivey> And thus you are screwed.
[21:02] <+CargoCulture> For reference purposes, Dennis Detwiller's DG novel "Through a Glass Darkly" covers some of the recent history Shane is referring to. (But also, unsurprisingly, contains major, major spoilers.)
[21:02] <+Geek2theRight> What kind of spoilers?
[21:03] <+ArsMysteriorum> Hm.
[21:03] <+ArsMysteriorum> Please don't tell me them.
[21:03] <+Shane_Ivey> Or you can run it as moles within the larger framework who are breaking the law left and right without even the gloss of a National Security Council clearance. You can keep things more secret but you're always one step away from prison or a black site cell in Ukraine. And thus you're screwed.
[21:03] <+Geek2theRight> Well at least tell me if they're in the core book coming out.
[21:04] <+ArsMysteriorum> I was curious if you've heard of such a figure as Andrija Puharich, Shane. He's a fellow who was funded by the gov't to do studies of paranormal business. Your endeavors may benefit from visiting his works!
[21:04] <+Shane_Ivey> Yeah, "Through a Glass Darkly" hits the point of transition. That gets explored in more detail in the DG RPG core books.
[21:04] <+helios1014> My players already have trust issues with an organization that does not pay them but asks them to do very questionable things.
[21:04] <+Shane_Ivey> I don't think I've heard of Andrija Puharich but I'll look him up.
[21:05] <+Shane_Ivey> Yeah. In the new game their trust issues will not be resolved.
[21:05] <+Geek2theRight> Cuz I don't like keeping stuff secret even from the GM. That's just 90s White Wolf junk there.
[21:05] <~Dan> Just a note that we're over 2 hours now, but the conversation still seems lively. Can you stick around, Shane?
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[21:06] <+Shane_Ivey> Oh, I see what you mean, Geek2theRight. No, we will not hide a bunch of critical stuff from you in the core books. Some elements may get more detail and scope in later sourcebooks, but the essentials will all be in the core books where they belong.
[21:06] <+Shane_Ivey> If there are more questions I can stick around a few minutes.
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[21:06] <+Geek2theRight> Yay!!!
[21:06] <&Le_Squide> Are there any genres or types of games you think ORE isn't good for?
[21:07] <+helios1014> I heard that Dr. Camp retiers in a DG book. Is that a currently published book or the upcoming book?
[21:07] <+Geek2theRight> Consider me sold then. I love conspiracy stuff when it's at least in a GM section.
[21:08] <+Shane_Ivey> I answered that a bit earlier, Squide, sorry. Check the transcript when it goes online. :) Nutshell: I think ORE is not well suited for games that gives a lot of narrative agency to players. At least, the ones that we've done. A Dirty World and Better Angels (and some bits of Candlewick Manor) comes closest.
[21:09] <+Shane_Ivey> Helios: Dr. Camp's fate is described in detail in the novel "Through a Glass, Darkly." It's available at arcdream.com and amazon.com, among other places.
[21:10] <+helios1014> Excellent.
[21:11] <+Shane_Ivey> What else?
[21:12] <~Dan> Well, first, I'd like to thank Shane for taking the time to speak with us this evening!
[21:12] <+helios1014> Could you modify the Dirty World charcater sheet so that it includes a definition of combat potental on the back?
[21:13] <+Shane_Ivey> Not a bad idea. I have added that to my projects list and will take a look.
[21:14] <+Shane_Ivey> Thanks for facilitating, Dan! It's been fun. Thanks for the questions, everybody.
[21:14] <+helios1014> So long and thanks for some of the fish.
[21:14] <+Shane_Ivey> Ha. :) See you later!
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